Three Heartbeats
by Isabel5
Summary: Chlollie. SPOILERS FOR BEAST. This is the way I feel the episode should have gone if I had my way.


**Title: **Three Heartbeats  
**Pairing:** Chloe/Oliver  
**Rating:** PG

**Spoilers: **Up to and for Episode "Beast"

**Summary:** The way I think Beast should have gone.

**Disclaimer:** Don't own really want.

**Author's Note: **I was loving the Chlollieness of the episode, Oliver's pure fear for Chloe's well being when he found out about Davis. It was awesome, right up until the end when Chloe and Oliver had their showdown.

I understand where they're going with this whole thing, Chloe sacrificing her life to save Clark (at least I hope that's where they're going with this whole thing), but I think the writers went about it really badly. I think they wrote not only Chloe but Oliver badly also. We needed to have more clues that she was doing what she was doing for Clark, not just for Davis, we needed more doubts, more fear in Chloe's actions. Instead it came off more like a steadfast loyalty to Davis with a complete disregard of the past seven years of her life with Clark and everyone else. I feel as if this whole Davis/Doomsday storyline has been bad writing for Chloe from the start, as if the writers erased seven years of back story and gave her whatever personality they needed to fit their scripts.

Also I know he doesn't trust people that much but after everything that they've been though, does Oliver really think that little of Chloe? I mean I've heard of girls overlooking a lot for the one we love but Oliver's first instinct was really to believe that Chloe was in love with Davis? I just need to get the image of Oliver dragging Chloe to the mat also the image of him brushing Chloe off to Clark out of my head and have Beast the way I feel it should have been done, I hope you enjoy.

* * *

Chloe knew it sounded melodramatic but every time she heard the bag bump up against the wall a little piece of her died inside. She walked across the Talon counting her heartbeats in three's. Three heartbeats to get from the basement to the backroom, another three heartbeats to get from the backroom to the counter. She had three more heartbeats to get from the counter to the door and she wondered if by the time she was done with this task there would be anything left of her.

She got to the door and had to set the bag on the ground. She refused to pay attention to the disgustingly squishy sound it made when she dropped it and patently ignored the large puddle of blood that was left behind when she picked it back up. Three heartbeats to get to the dumpster, knowing she should find a place further away from her own apartment, further away from the city would be ideal but she couldn't muster up the strength to go any further.

She looked down at her hands and the blood that was now staining them. The blood of the man she knew would have killed her if it weren't for Davis, but still that didn't matter. What mattered at the moment was that she, Chloe Sullivan, had just disposed of a body.

Chloe dropped to the ground as the weight of everything just fell on her and she was suffocating under it. With her back against the cool metal of the dumpster, she allowed herself one moment of weakness and the tears poured out as if she'd opened the floodgates. Deep down she had to have known this would happen. Chloe's a logical person, she can connect things faster than anyone else she knows. She's pretty good at figuring out what's most likely to happen next in any given situation and planning accordingly. That's part of the reason Oliver gave her the job of Watchtower. But still she never envisioned dumping garbage bags full of body parts in the dumpster where she threw out yesterday's lasagna.

They say that choices are what make a person who they are. All the minor and major decisions made throughout your life shape you and your future. She had a feeling that this particular decision was going to do more than shape her future, it was going to define it.

When she'd turned around that night a week ago and Davis had been standing in front of her, she'd been relieved for a split second. Before the betrayal, before she found out about what he'd done he had been her friend and death is never something you want for a friend, especially when it's at your own hands.

Three heartbeats and the reality of the situation had become quite apparent to Chloe. Davis was back from the dead so Doomsday was back from the dead. The meteor rocks hadn't killed him, only served to make him invincible, untouchable, in his own words, immortal. The last thing that Chloe realized, walking up the steps to the basement door when every last bone in her body had told her to run, told her to grab her loved ones and get as far away from Metropolis as humanly, and in Clark's case, not so humanly possible, was that she was it. She was the only thing keeping Davis from walking out of her basement, into the real world and killing everyone that got in his way, before he finally killed Clark.

Her hands were shaking as she reached for the doorknob and she cursed anyone that she could think of as she counted them out, three heartbeats and she'd made up her mind. Instead of running away, she locked herself in the room with the beast that had once been her friend. She cursed Faora and Zod for creating Davis in the first place, for sending him to earth. She cursed Jor-El for sending Clark. She cursed Jonathan and Martha Kent for finding him and bringing him home. She cursed Lionel Luther for promoting her father, which caused her to move from Metropolis to Smallville. She cursed the homeroom teacher whose name escaped her at the moment for choosing Clark Kent to be the one to show her around. She cursed herself for so desperately going after the truth behind Clark and eventually uncovering his secret. As she stared into the cold, calculating eyes of Davis Bloom, knowing that there was a monster lurking far too close to the surface for comfort, she finally cursed him for everything he had done to her and everything she knew he eventually would.

Her cell phone buzzed on her hip, bring her back to the present and the sensation caused her to jump, choking on a sob. She wiped her eyes and looked down at the phone, it was Davis. She hit ignore before running back into the Talon and down to the basement. If she was lucky it would only take an hour or so to calm him down and then she could spend the rest of the night scrubbing every available surface with bleach. By the time the morning crew came into open there would be no evidence that a brutal murder had taken place there and Chloe could maybe get a few hours sleep before she had to go to the Isis Foundation.

As Chloe reached out to open the basement door she had the same feelings she always got. Her mind was telling her to run as her body shook with unspent fear. She pushed them all down, put on the biggest smile she could muster after what she'd just done and turned the knob, walking into the lion's den.

*********

Juggling was always something that Chloe had been good at. Juggling friends and reporting, juggling school and reporting, juggling life and reporting and helping out her alien best friend hunt down and destroy escaped alien prisoners from another dimension all while helping Oliver take down 33.1 labs. In all that time she'd never once been as tired as she was now. No matter how many things were going on in her life she made time for sleep, even if it wasn't a full eight hours. But not anymore. Between harboring a mass murdering alien in her basement and pretending she wasn't harboring a mass murdering alien in her basement, disposing of a body, her clients at the Foundation and helping Oliver out sleep had become the last thing on her mind and apparently the first thing on everyone else's.

"I've been here for twenty minutes and you've yawned nine times." Oliver said closing a door on the filing cabinets and sighing once again as he did so. He'd begged Chloe when he took over the Foundation to let him buy her some brand new, not pink, filing cabinet but she just smiled and reminded him that they matched the pink couch.

"I'm not even going to bother commenting on the fact that you're counting my yawns." Chloe said as she yawned again.

"Yawns are contagious you know." Oliver said yawning himself. "So because you've yawned ten times now, so have I and I don't like to yawn." He pointed out. Chloe got up from her desk and walked to the coffee pot pouring another large cup and then starting a new pot. "That's also the third cup of coffee in as much time."

"Oliver you're sure there isn't something I can find for you and have messengered over to your office?" Chloe sipped her coffee. "You really need to do this personally?"

Oliver just smiled at her and walked over to the aforementioned pink couch. "You're busy. It wasn't anything urgent just a few things I wanted to look into."

Chloe stared at him for a minute then narrowed her eyes. "God, how you ever win at poker is beyond me. You're poker face is so obvious." She took another sip of coffee. "What are you doing here?"

"Clark said he was worried about you." Oliver admitted. "He said you were always tired lately, you were starting to forget things, misplace things."

"If this is about the computer, Clark got it back." Chloe protested.

"It's not about the computer." Oliver shook his head. "It's a little about the computer. The Chloe I know would never have put information that sensitive on a lap top and then be stupid enough to let it out of her sight for one second." Chloe's shoulders slumped and she rubbed her forehead. "Bart said you talked him through a security system in Belgrade around 2 a.m. last night."

"So?" Chloe frowned. "Isn't that my job?"

"Yeah, but then Victor said he had you online going over shipping orders until four in the morning and Dinah said you helped her out with re-con around five thirty."

"What's your point Oliver?" Chloe practically snapped at him.

"My point grouchy." He raised his eyebrows at her. "Is this: when was the last time you slept?"

Chloe opened her mouth and then shut it quickly, remembering the last time she'd slept. It had started out fine, except for the weird make out session with Davis in her dream that quickly morphed into her worst nightmare when she saw Clark's dismembered body hanging on the wall in her basement. She hasn't really felt the urge for a repeat performance, even if it is only a dream. That dream also made her realize that she couldn't let her guard down for even a second or everything she done would have been for naught and Davis would kill Clark and then the rest of the world. So sleep had become the enemy and coffee the new best friend. "I sleep." Chloe lied.

"Wow." Oliver laughed at her. "And you thought my poker face was bad." His smile faded and patted the seat next to him. Chloe grudgingly walked over and sat next to him. "Is this about Davis?" He asked quietly.

Chloe's heart rate quickened and then she realized that there was no way Oliver knew about Davis. He personally buried the body and no reason to believe Davis was anywhere but where Oliver left him. "No." Chloe said.

"Liar." Oliver whispered putting an arm around her shoulder. "You did what you had to do." Oliver told her. "What Clark couldn't do. You saved him, you saved all of us."

"I know that." Chloe said her voice small and wavering as tears breached the edge of her eye lids. "But every time I close my eyes…" As embarrassing as it was she couldn't stop it when the sobs took over.

"Shh." Oliver rubbed her back, trying to sooth her, to calm her down. "You can't sleep because you see his face. Because every dream is a nightmare."

"Yes." Chloe said. The first completely honest things she'd told Oliver that day.

"You're scared." Oliver said. "You're scared of him, you're scared of what he did, you're scared of yourself."

"Yes." Chloe cried. "I'm scared all the time." Chloe finally admitted out loud. "I'm scare of what I'll see when I close my eyes and I'm scared that when I open them he'll be standing there over me. I'm just scared." Oliver pulled her closer, his heart breaking for Chloe. "But most of all I'm so tired." She told him. "I'm tired of being scared, I'm tired of feeling guilty, I'm just so tired Oliver."

"It's ok." He assured her, his lips placing a reassuring kiss to her forehead. "It's ok." He told her again. "I'm here." He promised her. "I'm not going anywhere so why don't you just close your eyes." Chloe's breath hitched in her throat. "Just for a little while, just for a minute. I'll be right here, I'll be here the whole time ok?"

Chloe didn't have the strength to protest anymore so she nodded and closed her head, resting it on Oliver's shoulder. He lulled her to sleep humming something she couldn't quite make out and rubbing soothing circles on her back.

Oliver looked down at Chloe's sleeping form, her face relaxed for the first time in weeks. Her brow was no longer furrowed, the lines around her eyes and mouth were now slack instead of tightened with worry. Her mouth was slightly open breathing deeply as she slept on his lap and Oliver felt the tension ease out of his own body.

Clark was the one who'd told him what Chloe did, what she had to do because Clark couldn't. Clark was the one who first mentioned that he didn't think that Chloe had been sleeping but for some reason it was Oliver that had taken it upon himself to make sure she was ok. It was Oliver that was the only one who could possibly know what it felt like to take a life for the good of Clark Kent. It was Oliver that was perhaps slightly more concerned with Chloe's well being than a boss or even a friend should have been.

He watched as her breath quickened in her sleep, her brow furrowed and her eyes screwed tighter shut. He watched as the nightmare took over her peaceful state and felt a hot rage boil in his stomach. He whispered soothing words of comfort in her ear as he gently rubbed her back and she relaxed, her sleep becoming peaceful once again and still Oliver raged.

He raged against Davis Bloom for asking her to do what she did. He raged against Clark Kent for not having the strength that Chloe had. But mostly he raged against himself for not knowing about the danger, for not being there to save her, to help her when she needed him the most. He vowed that it wasn't going to happen again, he wasn't going to ever let her be put in that position again as long as he was around to stop it. Chloe was far from helpless, a fact that she was quick to point out to anyone who suggested otherwise but at the same time she wasn't the woman of steel she liked to pretend to be and he was determined to make sure she didn't have to pretend anymore. As he formulated a plan in his head to keep Chloe Sullivan as safe as he possibly could, one that bordered slightly on creating a complete scale model of Metropolis, populating the entire thing with actors and plopping Chloe smack dab in the middle of it a la The Truman Show, Oliver slowly drifted off to sleep himself.

Chloe could feel herself crawling out of a very deep sleep and resisted every step of the way. She was more comfortable than she'd been for weeks now and it had less to do with the slightly lumpy thing that she'd been sleeping on and she guessed everything to do with the strong, protective arm that was draped around her stomach. At the motion of her stirring away the arm tightened around her and a familiar voice whispered words of discouragement at the back of her neck. "Oliver?" Chloe thought confused, trying to envision a situation where she and Oliver would end up asleep somewhere together.

She opened her eyes slightly and saw the room was draped in darkness. Random lights outside the window let her know that it was night time and there were cars passing by and the faint pink fluoresces floating in from her right could be nothing other than the sign for the Isis Foundation. Slowly it came back to her. She'd been working with Oliver when they got into an argument about her sleeping habits and somehow that had translated to the two of them snuggled up together on the stupid pink couch. She hated the pink couch and the matching pink filing cabinets but they really bothered Oliver so she pretended to love them.

However the pain from the crick in her neck was slowly overriding the urge to mess with Oliver and she decided the next time he offered to redecorate she was going to take him up on his offer. Oliver mumbled again as Chloe came more fully into consciousness and she'd have to remember to tease him on not only his cuddling but his reluctance to wake up from his afternoon nap. A light appeared on the table in front of her and she frowned before realizing it was her cell phone and it was ringing. She reached a hand out and grabbed it seeing Talon typed on the screen and he body froze.

Talon was what she'd put Davis' number under so that no one would see his name on her phone and Chloe panicked. She looked at the clock on the top of her phone and realized that she'd been asleep for almost seven hours. The phone disconnected and she saw forty two missed calls, all from Davis. She sat up abruptly jarring Oliver and causing him to wake also. "What's going on?" He asked groggily.

"It's almost eight at night." Chloe said looking around frantically for her shoes. They must have fallen off at some point during her nap. "I can't believe I slept that late."

"You were tired." Oliver countered. "Apparently so was I." He ran a hand through his hair.

"But I had stuff to do." Chloe glared at him accusingly, as if it were his fault. "I have things that need…I got to go." She shook her head grabbing her bag and heading for the door.

"Go?" Oliver frowned standing up. "Chloe just wait a second, calm down."

"Lock up when you leave?" She asked him and then she was gone. Oliver was left standing there alone, confused, and trying his hardest not to think about the fact that that was the best sleep he'd gotten in months.

* * *

"I know I'm sorry." Chloe tore open the door to the basement and rushed down the steps.

"Where have you been?" Davis asked her upset. His face was pale and his whole body was shaking and he seemed to visibly react to her presence calming down almost immediately.

"I got caught up at the Foundation and I didn't realize what time it was, I'm so sorry." Chloe frowned.

"I called you so many times." He said to her and she closed her eyes in shame.

"I know, and I'm sorry." Chloe said. "But I'm here now. I'm right here." She assured him sitting down on the makeshift bed they'd created for him.

"I know." Davis sat next to her and rested his head on her shoulder and frowned. She smelled strange. Chloe had her own smell, it was a mixture of her pomegranate shampoo and that slight ozone smell that comes off of computers and Davis loved it, but today something was different. He could smell pomegranates and he could smell Chloe but on top of that was something different. There was a tinge of fresh soap mixed with a woodsy smell, almost like sawdust that was clinging to her clothes and hair and Davis didn't like it. Before he could ask her about it, she started running her fingers through his hair, the only thing that seemed to calm him enough to sleep he relaxed, forgetting about the scent and just thinking about Chloe.

As Davis' breathing evened out while he slept Chloe took the time to calm herself down. She'd wasted a day, wasted a whole day sleeping when she could have been searching for a solution. She had three options and none of them were very promising.

Option number one was a cure, something that could separate Davis from the Beast. Ideally you'd think that would be the best thing but Chloe didn't think so. If she cured him, turning him into a normal guy, was she doing him a favor? He wouldn't have the urges of the beast to kill anymore but he would have the memory of all those he killed, all those people and there were so many. What kind of life was that?

Option number two was prison, not Metropolis lockup but a real prison, the phantom zone. If she could somehow get him there she could keep him there where Clark and humanity would be safe. But she wasn't sure if she was ready to condemn him to an eternity in that hell on earth.

Option number three was murder. If by some miracle she found a way to kill him where he would stay dead and not come back even more powerful, she wasn't sure she could do that again. She knew if it came down to it, like Oliver and like she'd done before, she could kill if it meant saving Clark, saving the world. That didn't mean she would want to and seeing as how that wasn't her best option right now it was billed as the last resort.

Her fingers kept their rhythm sliding through Davis hair as she thought about what she was trying not to think about. Waking up in Oliver's arms was something Chloe was definitely not expecting. She felt safe for the first time in a long time and for the first few glorious seconds after waking up she actually managed to forget about anything except the feel of Oliver's arm around her waist and new and familiar tingling that it caused in her stomach. For those few minutes there was no Davis, no Doomsday, no murders, no secrets. There was only her and Oliver. Then her phone rang and reality came crashing down on her and it was all over.

She looked down at Davis to make sure he was in a deep enough sleep that she could slip upstairs for a few hours, cook herself some diner, take a shower and spend some time researching and possibly helping out Victor and AC with a warehouse in Miami, after she shows them how much she really doesn't appreciate them ratting her out to Oliver. She slipped off the bed and moved up the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible.

* * *

Oliver opened his eyes slowly, adjusting to the light, feeling the headache pound in his skull. "Oliver, come on man, wake up." Jimmy said from in front of him. He looked around confused, he seemed to be in the basement of the Talon. He couldn't remember how he got there at first until his headache pounded and it all came back to him.

Clark had come to his office, disrupting a perfectly good day to tell him that the grave he dug and buried Davis Bloom in was empty and Clark feared that he would go after Chloe. As Oliver was already mentally planning Chloe's rescue in his head Clark was asking him to go get her, keep her safe until he could find a way to get Davis into the Phantom Zone.

Oliver remembered the fight they'd had after that. He remembered screaming at Clark, digging into him for his cowardice. He pointed out that the only way to keep Chloe and everyone else safe was to kill Davis. When Clark had said that there were always other ways, other options Oliver laughed.

"_Other options?" Oliver asked him. "You mean, having your friends kill him for you?" _

"_That's not fair." Clark snapped at him. _

"_Not fair?" Oliver screamed. "What's not fair are all the people out there with blood on their hands so you can keep yours clean and pure. That's not fair." _

He'd been harsh but not wrong. Oliver killed Lex when Clark couldn't, Chloe killed Sebastian Kane, though ultimately unsuccessful, Chloe killed Davis Bloom when Clark couldn't and now she was in danger and the best that Clark could come up with was putting him in prison.

As he slowly made his way back to full consciousness he tried to keep a lid on the situation. He tried to keep Jimmy from committing suicide by psycho killer while he worked through the information in his head. Chloe had been keeping Davis in her basement for months, probably since he'd crawled his way out of Oliver's grave. She'd been hiding him down there and keeping the whole thing a secret.

Was she protecting Davis? That couldn't be the reason, Oliver refused to believe that she was doing this for Davis. No, Chloe wasn't that type of person. Even if once upon a time she'd had some sort of feelings for the guy, she wouldn't be able to over look the killing, the evil inside him. If he knew Chloe and he was one of the very few people that was sure he could lay claim to that, she was doing this for Clark. She was helping Davis, keeping him in check to keep Clark, and the rest of the world, safe. She was such an idiot.

Chloe called Davis and Oliver tried to warn her, tried to keep her away keep her safe but he'd long since learned with Chloe that safety was almost impossible where she was concerned. He just closed his eyes and hoped that he could come up with a plan before she got there.

* * *

Chloe hung up the phone, her hands shaking wondering for the hundredth time if she was doing the right thing, if this really was the way to go. She knew from Dr. Hamilton that there was no cure, no way to fix him. She still couldn't bring herself to stick him in the Phantom Zone, nor did she have the power to do it, and she couldn't kill him. But Tess had outed him and the police were looking for him and it was only a matter of time before he was found, especially if he kept wandering off like he did that after noon. Running away was the only option left, they definitely couldn't stay in Smallville.

She'd only been gone for two hours and already he was holding people hostage in her basement. Maybe she should have come clean. Maybe she should have told Clark that Davis was in her basement and not sent him on a wild goose chase to Alaska. There was no turning back now, she just needed to make sure she got back to the Talon before Davis lost control. The last thing she wanted to do was have to get rid of two more bodies before leaving her home forever.

She pressed down hard on the gas, trying to figure out the best way to do this. Should she say goodbye or should she just leave without a trace? Which one would make it easier on the ones she left behind? Should she explain what she was doing, why she was doing it? Would they know? Would they know her well enough or would they just think like Jimmy did that she's in love with Davis and the killings, the monster don't matter to her? That thought felt like a stab to the heart, surly they would know Chloe well enough by now, they would know she wasn't that person, wouldn't they?

She parked illegally in front of the Talon, ran in through the back way and practically slid down the steps of the basement. It took three heartbeats to fully take in the scene in front of her. Davis standing with his hands on either side of Jimmy's head and Oliver chained to a boiler behind him, screaming at Davis to sop. "Chloe would never forgive you." Oliver told him and to Chloe's utter relief Davis dropped Jimmy and she felt like she had some space to breathe.

"You're right." Davis said. "Chloe would never forgive me for killing her husband, you mean to much to her." He turned to Oliver and Chloe knew what was happening probably before Oliver did. "It'll have to be you."

Three more heartbeats, that's all it took, just three more heartbeats for her to figure out how to get out of this mess, how to fix things and in those three heartbeats her heart broke at the mere idea. She ran forward shedding bag and jacket to grab Davis' arm just as his fingers tightened on Oliver's throat.

Davis dropped his arm and Oliver sucked in a much needed breath and Chloe held his gaze for three heartbeats hoping to tell him so much in such a short period of time. She tore her eyes away from his confused ones and looked at Davis. "I'm here." Chloe told him, deftly moving him away from Oliver, away from Jimmy. "I'm here now, calm down."

"Chloe." Davis fell against her, hugging her tight and she had to use every reserve of strength not to cry out, not to push him away in disgust but to hug him back.

"Chloe?" Oliver's voice was hurt and confused and a tone that Chloe had come to know all too well in the past weeks, betrayed. "Chloe what's going on here?"

"I've got everything under control." She told him. "We can go now, just leave them here and get out of town, just forget about them."

"We can't." Davis shook his head. "They know I'm here. They know I'm with you." He kissed her forehead. "No one will believe Jimmy, he has a past of psychotic breaks and making up stories about Davis Bloom the serial killer. But Oliver can't be trusted."

"He can." Chloe protested.

"He'll tell." Davis growled.

"He won't." Chloe said at the same time Oliver decided to speak up.

"Your damn right I'll tell." Oliver snapped.

Davis slipped away from Chloe and his hands were around Oliver's throat in seconds. "Just one thing, just this one thing and we can be free."

"He's not a thing Davis, he's a person, he's my friend." Chloe pleaded with him. "You can't just…he's my friend."

Something stopped Davis from snapping Oliver's neck and the thing that most frightened Chloe was that it wasn't her. It wasn't her presence it wasn't anything she did it was Davis, he put himself in check. What happened next seemed the most surreal thing that happened that week which was saying a lot for a girl harboring a fugitive serial killing alien. Davis leaned in close to Oliver, right next to his cheek and he sniffed him.

It took Davis a lot less than three heartbeats to place the smell, clean fresh soap and the smell of sawdust. The smell that Chloe was drenched in the other night, the smell that had bothered him so much. "It was you." Davis growled.

"What was me?" Oliver whispered, real fear in his voice.

"You were with him." Davis turned to Chloe slowly. "You said you were working but you were with him."

"No Davis." Chloe took a step forward. "Please."

"His smell." Davis spat. "You were covered in it. He was all over you."

"I wasn't." Oliver shook his head. "We just slept. We were just sleeping."

Chloe squeezed her eyes shut and Oliver realized too late it was the wrong thing to say. "You don' touch her." Davis growled at him and turned to Chloe. "I was wrong before wasn't I?" He asked. "Jimmy isn't the most important to you, it's him isn't it?"

"Davis you've got to calm down." Chloe pleaded with him.

"Did you think you could take her from me?" Davis asked Oliver. "Did you think you were good enough for her?" He grabbed Oliver's throat again and squeezed tight. "You can't. She's mine, do you understand? She's mine."

"He knows." Chloe grabbed Davis' arm his eyes slowly started to lose the red tint.

"She's mine." Davis said.

"I am." Chloe tried to assure him. "I'm yours." She swallowed down her disgust and kissed him. She forced her lips to his and refused to let go until he had his arms wrapped around her waist and not around Oliver's throat. "I'm yours." She said pulling back. "I need you to go upstairs, I need you to pack some things ok, and I'll take care of them and we can leave."

"Ok." Davis smiled at her and kissed her again.

"Ok." Chloe nodded. "Just pack up my clothes, I don't need anything else."

Davis nodded and walked up the steps. "Chloe, get me out of this." Oliver said. "Untie me and we can get you out of here, get you safe."

"I can't." Chloe walked over and tightened the chains. "I'll call someone when we're out of town, tell them you're down here. It won't be more than an hour I promise."

"Chloe, you aren't seriously leaving with this guy?" Oliver pleaded with her.

"I have to." She said. "I know what I'm doing."

"You are so far from knowing what you're doing." Oliver shook his head at her.

"I can control him." Chloe said. "I can keep him Davis, keep him from turning into Doomsday. As long as he's Davis he's not killing people, he's not killing Clark and he's not killing you."

"You can't take that on yourself." Oliver pleaded with her. "That is not your problem, he is not your problem."

"He may not be my problem." Chloe whispered. "But until Clark can do what needs to be done, I'm the solution."

"You're not Chloe, you're really not." Oliver begged her as they heard Davis slam the door to Chloe's apartment.

Chloe smiled sadly at him, cupped his face and kissed him softly. The tears running down her face got caught on their lips turning the kiss salty and bittersweet. She pulled away with a gasp. What was initially supposed to be a simply goodbye turned into so much more and Chloe wasn't ready for that. From the look on Oliver's face he wasn't ready for it either. "I have to go."

"Chloe!" Oliver pulled on the chains. "Don't do this."

"I have to go." She wiped her eyes.

"I'm going to find you." Oliver pulled hard at his chains. "I'm going to do whatever I can to find you, wherever you are on this earth or off this earth for that matter. I will find you and bring you back."

"No you won't." Chloe shook her head and laid a hand on his cheek. "He was right you know. I don't know when it happened but you are the most important person to me."

"Chloe." Tears welled up in Oliver's eyes and Chloe jerked away from him.

Three heartbeats were all it took for Chloe to change her face from tearful pain to expectant excitement as Davis kicked the door open. "Ready?" He held a duffle bag up for her.

"Yeah." Chloe nodded walking to the steps.

Oliver never understood what people meant when they said that things were moving as if in slow motion, not until that second, that agonizing second. He could see every movement from the sway of her hair as she passed under the air vent to the light touch of her hand automatically reaching out for a railing that wasn't there. It felt like it took an eternity for her to get up the steps and he used that time to memorize her. He's not sure when it happened either but at some point she became the most important person to him too and there was nothing he could do to save her. He wanted to rage, he wanted to cry, he wanted to close his eyes so he didn't have to watch her walk away but he couldn't do either.

They reached the top of the steps, opened the door and her head turned toward him. Their eyes met for one, two, three heartbeats and then she was gone.


End file.
